BlackArrow Assembles Advisory Board

Advanced advertising firm BlackArrow has formed an advisory board comprised of execs spanning cable operators, ad agencies, programmers, marketing firms and ad trade associations. 

The new board’s charter members include: Nancy Hill, president and CEO of American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s); David Poltrack, the chief research officer of CBS; Marcien Jenckes, EVP of consumer services at Comcast; Mike Bologna, director of emerging communications at GroupM; Marc Krok, SVP of advertising sales at AMC Networks; and Bob DeSena, CEO and founder of the Engagement Marketing Group. 

BlackArrow said the board will provide insights and guidance and promote the role of advanced advertising, concentrating on topics such as how to mix linear TV buys with addressable advertising, and how to factor in targeted VOD advertising and multiscreen video.

“With the TV industry undergoing such a revolutionary change, we felt this distinguished group of individuals could offer unique market and business perspectives to BlackArrow and our partners as the television advertising industry navigates the quickly morphing market,” said Nick Troiano, president of BlackArrow, in a release. “We’re extremely excited about the caliber of the charter members that have joined us in this mission and grateful to them for committing the time and expertise to support our efforts in establishing a healthy advanced advertising and TV ecosystem.”

Of recent note, BlackArrow licensed its advertising campaign management system to Canoe, the cross-MSO advanced advertising venture currently backed by Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Canoe is using that system to help out national cable network partners speed up their ability to insert ads dynamically into VOD content.

BlackArrow’s platform covers 30 million homes served by TWC, Comcast, Rogers Communications and yet-unnamed partners. Troiano told Multichannel News in May that he expects that total to increase to more than 40 million homes by sometime in 2014.